Fantasia 2010: FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION Review
[Our thanks to Laurence H Collin from Panorama Cinema for the following review and Maude Michaud for the translation.]
Charlie Otero, fifteen, was coming home from school as usual. The night before, he had just watched the film In Cold Blood on TV and was pretty shaken up by this murder story set in a rural setting. In fact, he had even shared his fear with his dad, who consoled and assured him that such a thing would never happen. Charlie arrived home to find the house surrounded by police cars and anxiously asked the cops the reason why, only to be explained that four of his family members had just been murdered by a stranger with deviant impulses. Almost thirty years after the tragedy, documentary filmmaker Marc D. Levitz became interested with Charlie's story; now a father with a criminal past, Charlie is doing what he can to live a normal life. However, he will soon be haunted again by his painful past when the identity of his parents' murderer, notorious for his letters sent to the media and signed BTK ("bind, torture, kill"), is revealed. Dennis Rader, a seemingly ordinary man, was arrested and put behind bars, thus marking the beginning of the long judicial process. Charlie remains the focus of Levitz's film as he witnesses the heart-wrenching testimonies of the loved ones of Rader's victims.
Even though the events described are unbelievably cruel and the victims resentful, Feast of the Assumption succeeds in avoiding treating its subject in a sensationalistic manner. Playing a central role in the trial, Charlie Otero is represented as being surprisingly friendly. By refusing to compromise Otero's screen time with the shattering testimonies and his reactions to the case, Levitz takes a nuanced approach and explores Charlie's relationship to his own unsteady family life. Constantly alternating between anger and denial, Otero's spontaneity and comfort on camera shows the complicity that the filmmaker managed to create over the years.
It is this specific trust that exists between Charlie and his interlocutors which sometimes transcends the clumsiness of the directing of the film's 86 minutes. Even if the low budget is forgivable, the lack of fluidity in the editing and the average sound mix keep the audience at a distance during the sequences that are not as emotionally charged. Having witnessed the development of the case (as well as the growing relationship of Charlie and his family) during production, Levitz tries with more or less success to connect many similar themes such as: the guilt of the survivor, the ever-increasing interest of the media for family tragedies, or the role of the documentary filmmaker in the midst of a social phenomenon. This is a first honest attempt at tackling a difficult issue which proves to be troubling, but also feels incomplete. Feast of the Assumption: The Otero Family Murders succeeds its journalistic ethical test, but would have greatly benefited from a more refined post-production.
Review by Laurence H Collin
Charlie Otero, fifteen, was coming home from school as usual. The night before, he had just watched the film In Cold Blood on TV and was pretty shaken up by this murder story set in a rural setting. In fact, he had even shared his fear with his dad, who consoled and assured him that such a thing would never happen. Charlie arrived home to find the house surrounded by police cars and anxiously asked the cops the reason why, only to be explained that four of his family members had just been murdered by a stranger with deviant impulses. Almost thirty years after the tragedy, documentary filmmaker Marc D. Levitz became interested with Charlie's story; now a father with a criminal past, Charlie is doing what he can to live a normal life. However, he will soon be haunted again by his painful past when the identity of his parents' murderer, notorious for his letters sent to the media and signed BTK ("bind, torture, kill"), is revealed. Dennis Rader, a seemingly ordinary man, was arrested and put behind bars, thus marking the beginning of the long judicial process. Charlie remains the focus of Levitz's film as he witnesses the heart-wrenching testimonies of the loved ones of Rader's victims.
Even though the events described are unbelievably cruel and the victims resentful, Feast of the Assumption succeeds in avoiding treating its subject in a sensationalistic manner. Playing a central role in the trial, Charlie Otero is represented as being surprisingly friendly. By refusing to compromise Otero's screen time with the shattering testimonies and his reactions to the case, Levitz takes a nuanced approach and explores Charlie's relationship to his own unsteady family life. Constantly alternating between anger and denial, Otero's spontaneity and comfort on camera shows the complicity that the filmmaker managed to create over the years.
It is this specific trust that exists between Charlie and his interlocutors which sometimes transcends the clumsiness of the directing of the film's 86 minutes. Even if the low budget is forgivable, the lack of fluidity in the editing and the average sound mix keep the audience at a distance during the sequences that are not as emotionally charged. Having witnessed the development of the case (as well as the growing relationship of Charlie and his family) during production, Levitz tries with more or less success to connect many similar themes such as: the guilt of the survivor, the ever-increasing interest of the media for family tragedies, or the role of the documentary filmmaker in the midst of a social phenomenon. This is a first honest attempt at tackling a difficult issue which proves to be troubling, but also feels incomplete. Feast of the Assumption: The Otero Family Murders succeeds its journalistic ethical test, but would have greatly benefited from a more refined post-production.
Review by Laurence H Collin
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